Rise of the Third Army Review: Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 by Peter J. Tomasi and ChrisCross

Baz and B’dg continue to give Guy the lowdown on what’s going on. Then Guy begins to piece together the Guardians’ plans with what has been going on with the Green Lanterns across the universe. The Guardians then send out a message urging Green Lanterns to return to Oa in order to receive an inoculation for the aliens (Third Army) that are spreading their infection. Guy flies off to Oa while Baz and B’dg decide to open the Book of the Black. Upon opening its pages the expected happens and they are greeted by an old foe. Meanwhile John and Fatality are with Mogo whose core rebuilding is almost complete. The Guardians send a group of the Third Army to kill them, but John and Fatality are met with a major surprise. Over on Oa, Guy tries to get his ring back, but Kilowog stops him and gives him more information as to what is occurring. Guy attacks the Guardians and they find out that he is merely a ruse in a much bigger plan. Eventually Guy is joined by Kyle as well as other members and they fight the Guardians. The Manhunters then join the battle and the Guardians are forced to resort to desperate measures. This results in something much worse for everyone involved.

The Breakdown

Guy continues to be the go-to-guy (I hate myself for that one) for the Corps and he’s making me wonder what can Hal and Sinestro bring to the table that Guy cannot? Well for this particular struggle at least. The new look on the Manhunters was a good strong visual as they had a much more vicious look to them under Atrocitus. The involvement of Kyle was almost borderline for me. On the one hand, it was good to see him meeting up with everyone else again finally. On the other hand, I have to wonder what the purpose is behind him mastering the spectrum. I thought that it was to combat the Third Army, but it didn’t seem like he was needed all that badly with relation to them. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to seeing what his real purpose is with this whole storyline. Also, seeing him face-off against Ganthet was a really strong moment in the story. The sheer emotion shown by Kyle was good to see and I want to see what will happen with that in further issues. Yes! Finally we see Soranik Natu, Vath, and Isamot! I was starting to wonder what the deal was with them in the reboot. This small part nearly made this issue a win for me all by itself. The save made during the John and Fatality scene made me breathe a sigh of relief as it was great to see this particular character once again. Still loving the involvement of B’dg in this storyline…a real highlight for me. The breakdown of the Third Army with B’dg and Guy was good because it explained a lot. This whole storyline will return some things to the status quo while making some significant changes to the overall status quo. I really want to see what the First Lantern looks like. One of the things that I really enjoyed was seeing the Guardians finally taking a beating that they truly deserved. The battle is far from over, but they took some serious licks in this issue. There was some nice work done by the art team in this issue. The colours provided by Quintana provided this issue was some excitement visually. Some of those pages looked like a lot of work. I’m seriously looking forward to the rest of this storyline.

BUT…

Overall the art was decent for me in this issue, but there were some weak looking spots as well. The Guardians’ plan with relation to the “inoculation” didn’t seem to be that well conceived. Their power was already spread quite thin with the Third Army advancing everywhere and the power required to hold the Green Lanterns in stasis would’ve been too taxing if all of the Green Lanterns arrived quickly. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it just seemed like a stretch even for their powers. I’m glad that the Third Army portion of the storyline is over because while I enjoyed it, they just didn’t seem as menacing as they could’ve been. Seeing the return of some nearly-forgotten Green Lanterns made me think of what I liked prior to the reboot in GLC. Seeing more members of the Corps featured more regularly that weren’t Earth born. Since the reboot this title has been up and down for me (with the upside coming in the past few issues…since issue #0 perhaps).

Buy It, Borrow It, Shelf Read It, or Ignore It?

Buy It. It’s nice to finally be able to recommend one of these annuals. Everything comes to a head and nicely leads into the Wrath of the First Lantern storyline. I really hope that after everything is wrapped up that B’dg is a regular within this book. He continues to be an interesting character and he has been an excellent pairing for Baz. Guy once again shows the he really is fearless and knowingly embarks on a suicide mission in order to save the Corps. This annual provided some reveals, resolutions, and a really good cliffhanger. I was in a good mood after reading this book because I didn’t feel like I wasted five bucks. A solid read especially considering some of the annuals that I’ve read recently.

About The Author

joesmith

I have been both an avid and casual comic reader over the years (depending on the quality of books). I have been reading Comics Nexus even prior to it becoming Comics Nexus and am glad to be a columnist. In addition, feel free to leave comments whether you agree or disagree because it always leads to discussions.